Sats Improve Again

Experts: Students Finally Taking Substantive Courses

WASHINGTON — For the second year in a row, the average scores of students taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test have risen, prompting test officials to be optimistic about continued improvement.

The average SAT verbal score this year was 424, one point above last year's score, while the mathematics average was 478, a two-point rise over 1992, giving a total of 902. The highest possible scores are 800 on each, or a total of 1,600.

Virginia students came in with an average of 425 on the verbal part, the same as in 1992. Students averaged 468 on the math portion, one point more than scored in 1992.

Blacks maintained the gains they have made against whites since 1976, when the SAT began reporting ethnic breakdowns.

On the verbal test, the average scores of black students rose to 353 this year, up one point from last year and 21 points from 1976. In comparison, the average score of white students was 444 this year, up two from last year and down seven points from 1976.

On the math test, the average score of black students rose to 388 this year, up three points from last year and up 34 points from 1976. In comparison, the average score of white students was 494, up three points from last year and up one point from 1976.

Educators said they could not determine whether this year's increase indicates a long-term trend to reverse the decline that began in the 1960s. They did note a continued increase in the percentage of test-takers who had taken 20 or more courses in six academic areas, to 42 percent this year, up from 34 percent of in 1987.

``Rigorous academic studies makes for winners,'' said Donald M. Stewart, president of the College Board.

``We're looking at a one-point difference but it's not the amount of the change that's impressive, but the direction,'' said Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a nonprofit policy and analysis organization based in Rochester. ``What's most important is that more kids are taking courses of substance. We need a whole lot more kids doing that.''

Despite the improvement, Stewart said too many students were still ``not being held to rigorous academic standards or exposed to a challenging curriculum.''

He also expressed concern over the ``painfully slow academic recovery,'' noting that this year's verbal score is still one point under the level of 1983 and that both scores are significantly below the historic high levels of the 1960s. In 1969, the total score on the verbal test was 463, the math total was 493.

This year, women's scores rose one point each on the verbal test, to 420, and on math, to 457, while men's scores rose three points on math, to 502, and remained unchanged on the verbal section, at 428.

Girls historically score lower than boys, a fact that FairTest, a Cambridge, Mass.-based organization that analyzes tests, attributes to bias.

``We don't think the test is biased,'' said Howard T. Everson, senior research scientist with the College Board. ``It's no secret for a variety of reasons, young women are socialized and steered away from more rigorous math courses and that plays itself out in scores on standardized tests.''